Item 1. BUSINESS.

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Overview

United Continental Holdings, Inc. (together with its consolidated subsidiaries, “UAL” or the “Company”) is a holding company and its principal, wholly-owned subsidiary is United Airlines, Inc. (together with its consolidated subsidiaries, “United”). As UAL consolidates United for financial statement purposes, disclosures that relate to activities of United also apply to UAL, unless otherwise noted. United’s operating revenues and operating expenses comprise nearly 100% of UAL’s revenues and operating expenses. In addition, United comprises approximately the entire balance of UAL’s assets, liabilities and operating cash flows. When appropriate, UAL and United are named specifically for their individual contractual obligations and related disclosures and any significant differences between the operations and results of UAL and United are separately disclosed and explained. We sometimes use the words “we,” “our,” “us,” and the “Company” in this report for disclosures that relate to all of UAL and United.

UAL was incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware on December 30, 1968. Our principal executive office is located at 233 South Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60606 (telephone number (872) 825-4000).

The Company’s website is www.united.com. The information contained on or connected to the Company’s website is not incorporated by reference into this annual report on Form 10-K and should not be considered part of this or any other report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Through this website, the Company’s filings with the SEC, including annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and all amendments to those reports, as well as our proxy statement for our annual meeting of stockholders, are accessible without charge, as soon as reasonably practicable, after such material is electronically filed with or furnished to the SEC. Such filings are also available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.

Operations

The Company transports people and cargo through its mainline and regional operations. With key global aviation rights in North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Latin America, UAL has the world’s most comprehensive global route network. UAL, through United and its regional carriers, operates more than 4,500 flights a day to 338 airports across five continents, with hubs at Newark Liberty International Airport (“Newark”), Chicago O’Hare International Airport (“Chicago O’Hare”), Denver International Airport (“Denver”), George Bush Intercontinental Airport (“Houston Bush”), Los Angeles International Airport (“LAX”), A.B. Won Pat International Airport (“Guam”), San Francisco International Airport (“SFO”) and Washington Dulles International Airport (“Washington Dulles”).

All of the Company’s domestic hubs are located in large business and population centers, contributing to a large amount of “origin and destination” traffic. The hub and spoke system allows us to transport passengers between a large number of destinations with substantially more frequent service than if each route were served directly. The

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hub system also allows us to add service to a new destination from a large number of cities using only one or a limited number of aircraft. As discussed under Alliances below, United is a member of Star Alliance, the world’s largest alliance network.

Financial information on the Company’s operating revenues by geographic region, as reported to the U.S. Department of Transportation (the “DOT”), can be found in Note 15 to the financial statements included in Part II, Item 8 of this report.

Regional. The Company has contractual relationships with various regional carriers to provide regional aircraft service branded as United Express. These regional operations are an extension of the Company’s mainline network. This regional service complements our operations by carrying traffic that connects to our mainline service and allows flights to smaller cities that cannot be provided economically with mainline aircraft. Republic Airlines (“Republic”), Champlain Enterprises, LLC d/b/a CommutAir (“CommutAir”), ExpressJet Airlines (“ExpressJet”), GoJet Airlines (“GoJet”), Mesa Airlines (“Mesa”), SkyWest Airlines (“SkyWest”), Air Wisconsin Airlines (“Air Wisconsin”), and Trans States Airlines (“Trans States”) are all regional carriers that operate with capacity contracted to United under capacity purchase agreements (“CPAs”). Under these CPAs, the Company pays the regional carriers contractually agreed fees (carrier costs) for operating these flights plus a variable reimbursement (incentive payment for operational performance) based on agreed performance metrics, subject to annual inflation adjustments. The fees for carrier costs are based on specific rates for various operating expenses of the regional carriers, such as crew expenses, maintenance and aircraft ownership, some of which are multiplied by specific operating statistics (e.g., block hours, departures), while others are fixed monthly amounts. Under these CPAs, the Company is responsible for all fuel costs incurred, as well as landing fees and other costs, which are either passed through by the regional carrier to the Company without any markup or directly incurred by the Company. In return, the regional carriers operate this capacity exclusively for United, on schedules determined by the Company. The Company also determines pricing and revenue management, assumes the inventory and distribution risk for the available seats and permits mileage accrual and redemption for regional flights through its MileagePlus® loyalty program.

Alliances. United is a member of Star Alliance, a global integrated airline network and the largest and most comprehensive airline alliance in the world. As of January 1, 2018, Star Alliance carriers served 1,300 airports in 191 countries with 18,400 daily departures. Star Alliance members, in addition to United, are Adria Airways, Aegean Airlines, Air Canada, Air China, Air India, Air New Zealand, All Nippon Airways (“ANA”), Asiana Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Avianca, Avianca Brasil, Brussels Airlines, Copa Airlines, Croatia Airlines, EGYPTAIR, Ethiopian Airlines, EVA Air, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, SAS Scandinavian Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, SWISS, TAP Air Portugal, THAI Airways International and Turkish Airlines. In May 2017, Star Alliance added Shanghai-based Juneyao Airlines as an additional connecting partner.

United has a variety of bilateral commercial alliance agreements and obligations with Star Alliance members, addressing, among other things, reciprocal earning and redemption of frequent flyer miles, access to airport lounges and, with certain Star Alliance members, codesharing of flight operations (whereby one carrier’s selected flights can be marketed under the brand name of another carrier). In addition to the alliance agreements with Star Alliance members, United currently maintains independent marketing alliance agreements with other air carriers, including Aeromar, Aer Lingus, Air Dolomiti, Azul, Cape Air, Eurowings, Great Lakes Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, and Silver Airways. In addition to the marketing alliance agreements with air partners, United also offers a train-to-plane codeshare and frequent flyer alliance with Amtrak from Newark on select city pairs in the northeastern United States.

United also participates in three passenger joint ventures, one with Air Canada and the Lufthansa Group (which includes Lufthansa and its affiliates Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings and SWISS) covering transatlantic routes, one with ANA covering certain transpacific routes and one with Air New Zealand covering certain routes between the United States and New Zealand. These passenger joint ventures enable the participating carriers to integrate the services they provide in the respective regions, capturing revenue synergies and delivering highly competitive flight schedules, fares and services. United has also implemented cargo joint

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ventures with ANA for transpacific cargo services and continues to implement a cargo joint venture with Lufthansa for transatlantic cargo services. These cargo joint ventures offer expanded and more seamless access to cargo space across the carriers’ respective combined networks.

Loyalty Program. United’s MileagePlus program builds customer loyalty by offering awards, benefits and services to program participants. Members in this program earn miles for flights on United, United Express, Star Alliance members and certain other airlines that participate in the program. Members can also earn miles by purchasing the goods and services of our network of non-airline partners, such as domestic and international credit card issuers, retail merchants, hotels and car rental companies. Members can redeem miles for free (other than taxes and government imposed fees), discounted or upgraded travel and non-travel awards.

United has an agreement with Chase Bank USA, N.A. (“Chase”), pursuant to which members of United’s MileagePlus loyalty program who are residents of the United States can earn miles for making purchases using a MileagePlus credit card issued by Chase. The agreement also provides for joint marketing and other support for the MileagePlus credit card and provides Chase with other benefits such as permission to market to the Company’s customer database.

Approximately 5.4 million and 5.2 million MileagePlus flight awards were used on United in 2017 and 2016, respectively. These awards represented 7.5% and 7.7% of United’s total revenue passenger miles in 2017 and 2016, respectively. Total miles redeemed for flights on United in 2017, including class-of-service upgrades, represented approximately 85% of the total miles redeemed. In addition, excluding miles redeemed for flights on United, MileagePlus members redeemed miles for approximately 2.3 million other awards in 2017 as compared to 2.0 million in 2016. These awards include United Club memberships, car and hotel awards, merchandise and flights on other air carriers.

Aircraft Fuel. The table below summarizes UAL’s aircraft fuel consumption and expense during the last three years.

		Year		Gallons Consumed (in millions)				Fuel Expense (in millions)				Average Price Per Gallon				Percentage of Total Operating Expense
	2017			3,978			$	6,913			$	1.74				20%
	2016			3,904			$	5,813			$	1.49				18%
	2015			3,886			$	7,522			$	1.94				23%

Our operational and financial results can be significantly impacted by changes in the price and availability of aircraft fuel. To provide adequate supplies of fuel, the Company routinely enters into purchase contracts that are customarily indexed to market prices for aircraft fuel, and the Company generally has some ability to cover short-term fuel supply and infrastructure disruptions at some major demand locations. The price of aircraft fuel has fluctuated substantially in the past several years. As of December 31, 2017, the Company did not have any outstanding fuel hedging contracts. The Company’s current strategy is to not enter into transactions to hedge its fuel consumption, although the Company regularly reviews its strategy based on market conditions and other factors.

Third-Party Business. United generates third-party business revenue that includes frequent flyer award non-air redemptions, maintenance services, catering and ground handling. Third-party business revenue is recorded in Other operating revenue. Expenses associated with third-party business are recorded in Other operating expenses.

Distribution Channels. The Company’s airline seat inventory and fares are distributed through the Company’s direct channels, traditional travel agencies and on-line travel agencies. The use of the Company’s direct sales website, www.united.com, the Company’s mobile applications and alternative distribution systems provides the Company with an opportunity to de-commoditize its services, better present its content, make more targeted offerings, better retain its customers, enhance its brand and lower its ticket distribution costs. Agency sales are

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primarily sold using global distribution systems (“GDS”). United has developed capabilities to sell certain ancillary products through the GDS channel to provide an enhanced buying experience for customers who purchase in that channel. To increase the Company’s opportunities to sell its full range of products and services and lower distribution costs, the Company will continue to develop new selling capabilities in third-party channels and expand the capabilities of its website and mobile applications.

Industry Conditions

Domestic Competition. The domestic airline industry is highly competitive and dynamic. The Company’s competitors consist primarily of other airlines and, to a certain extent, other forms of transportation. Currently, any U.S. carrier deemed fit by the DOT is largely free to operate scheduled passenger service between any two points within the United States. Competition can be direct, in the form of another carrier flying the exact non-stop route, or indirect, where a carrier serves the same two cities non-stop from an alternative airport in that city or via an itinerary requiring a connection at another airport. Air carriers’ cost structures are not uniform and there are numerous factors influencing cost structure. Carriers with lower costs may offer lower fares to passengers, which could have a potential negative impact on the Company’s revenues. Decisions on domestic pricing are based on intense competitive pressure exerted on the Company by other U.S. airlines. In order to remain competitive and maintain passenger traffic levels, we often find it necessary to match competitors’ discounted fares. Since we compete in a dynamic marketplace, attempts to generate additional revenue through increased fares oftentimes fail.

International Competition. Internationally, the Company competes not only with U.S. airlines, but also with foreign carriers. International competition has increased and may continue to increase in the future as a result of airline mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, alliances, restructurings, liberalization of aviation bilateral agreements and new or increased service by competitors, including government subsidized competitors from certain Middle East countries. Competition on international routes is subject to varying degrees of governmental regulation. The Company’s ability to compete successfully with non-U.S. carriers on international routes depends in part on its ability to generate traffic to and from the entire United States via its integrated domestic route network and its ability to overcome business and operational challenges across its network worldwide. Foreign carriers currently are prohibited by U.S. law from carrying local passengers between two points in the United States and the Company generally experiences comparable restrictions in foreign countries. Separately, “fifth freedom rights” allow the Company to operate between points in two different foreign countries and foreign carriers may also have fifth freedom rights between the U.S. and another foreign country. In the absence of fifth freedom rights, or some other extra-bilateral right to conduct operations between two foreign countries, U.S. carriers are constrained from carrying passengers to points beyond designated international gateway cities. To compensate partially for these structural limitations, U.S. and foreign carriers have entered into alliances, joint ventures and marketing arrangements that enable these carriers to exchange traffic between each other’s flights and route networks. See Alliances, above, for additional information.

Seasonality. The air travel business is subject to seasonal fluctuations. Historically, demand for air travel is higher in the second and third quarters, driving higher revenues, than in the first and fourth quarters, which are periods of lower travel demand.

Industry Regulation

Domestic Regulation

All carriers engaged in air transportation in the United States are subject to regulation by the DOT. Absent an exemption, no air carrier may provide air transportation of passengers or property without first being issued a DOT certificate of public convenience and necessity. The DOT also grants international route authority, approves international codeshare arrangements and regulates methods of competition. The DOT regulates consumer protection and maintains jurisdiction over advertising, denied boarding compensation, tarmac delays, baggage liability and other areas and may add additional expensive regulatory burdens in the future. The DOT has

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launched investigations or claimed rulemaking authority to regulate commercial agreements among carriers or between carriers and third parties in a wide variety of contexts.

Airlines are also regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration (the “FAA”), an agency within the DOT, primarily in the areas of flight safety, air carrier operations and aircraft maintenance and airworthiness. The FAA issues air carrier operating certificates and aircraft airworthiness certificates, prescribes maintenance procedures, oversees airport operations, and regulates pilot and other employee training. From time to time, the FAA issues directives that require air carriers to inspect or modify aircraft and other equipment, potentially causing the Company to incur substantial, unplanned expenses. The airline industry is also subject to numerous other federal laws and regulations. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) has jurisdiction over virtually every aspect of civil aviation security. The Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) has jurisdiction over certain airline competition matters. The U.S. Postal Service has authority over certain aspects of the transportation of mail by airlines. Labor relations in the airline industry are generally governed by the Railway Labor Act (“RLA”), a federal statute. The Company is also subject to investigation inquiries by the DOT, FAA, DOJ, DHS, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) and other U.S. and international regulatory bodies.

Airport Access. Access to landing and take-off rights, or “slots,” at several major U.S. airports served by the Company are, or recently have been, subject to government regulation. Federally-mandated domestic slot restrictions that limit operations and regulate capacity currently apply at three airports: Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. (“Reagan National”), John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport in the New York City metropolitan region (“LaGuardia”). Of these three airports, United currently operates at two: Reagan National and LaGuardia. Additional restrictions on takeoff and landing slots at these and other airports may be implemented in the future and could affect the Company’s rights of ownership and transfer as well as its operations.

Legislation. The airline industry is subject to legislative activity that may have an impact on operations and costs. In 2018, the U.S. Congress will continue to consider legislation to reauthorize the FAA, which encompasses all significant aviation tax and policy-related issues. As with previous reauthorization legislation, the U.S. Congress may consider a range of policy changes that could impact operations and costs. Finally, aviation security continues to be the subject of legislative and regulatory action, requiring changes to the Company’s security processes, potentially increasing the cost of its security procedures and affecting its operations.

Catering Operations. The Company owns and operates catering kitchens at airports in Denver, Cleveland, Newark, Houston, and Honolulu, which prepare ready-to-eat food for United flights, as well as other domestic and international airlines. In addition, the Cleveland flight kitchen produces a small volume of food products for retail sale. These operations are subject to regulation by the FDA and the USDA, as well as other regulatory agencies. The FDA recently began implementing the Federal Food Safety Modernization Act which requires all food manufacturers to implement more stringent preventive controls. As a result, airline catering operations have recently become the focus of enhanced scrutiny by the FDA with inspections and greater enforcement.

International Regulation

International air transportation is subject to extensive government regulation. In connection with the Company’s international services, the Company is regulated by both the U.S. government and the governments of the foreign countries the Company serves. In addition, the availability of international routes to U.S. carriers is regulated by aviation agreements between the U.S. and foreign governments, and in some cases, fares and schedules require the approval of the DOT and/or the relevant foreign governments.

Legislation. Foreign countries are increasingly enacting passenger protection laws, rules and regulations that meet or exceed U.S. requirements. In cases where this activity exceeds U.S. requirements, additional burden and liability may be placed on the Company. Certain countries have regulations requiring passenger compensation and/or enforcement penalties from the Company in addition to changes in operating procedures due to canceled and delayed flights.

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Airport Access. Historically, access to foreign markets has been tightly controlled through bilateral agreements between the U.S. and each foreign country involved. These agreements regulate the markets served, the number of carriers allowed to serve each market and the frequency of carriers’ flights. Since the early 1990s, the U.S. has pursued a policy of “Open Skies” (meaning all U.S.-flag carriers have access to the destination), under which the U.S. government has negotiated a number of bilateral agreements allowing unrestricted access between U.S. and foreign markets. Currently, there are more than 100 Open Skies agreements in effect. However, even with Open Skies, many of the airports that the Company serves in Europe, Asia and Latin America maintain slot controls. A large number of these slot controls exist due to congestion, environmental and noise protection and reduced capacity due to runway and air traffic control (“ATC”) construction work, among other reasons. London Heathrow International Airport, Frankfurt Rhein-Main Airport, Shanghai Pudong International Airport, Beijing Capital International Airport, Sao Paulo Guarulhos International Airport and Tokyo Haneda International Airport are among the most restrictive foreign airports due to slot and capacity limitations.

The Company’s ability to serve some foreign markets and expand into certain others is limited by the absence of aviation agreements between the U.S. government and the relevant foreign governments. Shifts in U.S. or foreign government aviation policies may lead to the alteration or termination of air service agreements. Depending on the nature of any such change, the value of the Company’s international route authorities and slot rights may be materially enhanced or diminished. Similarly, foreign governments control their airspace and can restrict our ability to overfly their territory, enhancing or diminishing the value of the Company’s existing international route authorities and slot rights.

Environmental Regulation

The airline industry is subject to increasingly stringent federal, state, local and international environmental requirements, including those regulating emissions to air, water discharges, safe drinking water and the use and management of hazardous substances and wastes.

Climate Change. There is an increasing global regulatory focus on greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions and their potential impacts relating to climate change. Initiatives to regulate GHG emissions from aviation had previously been adopted by the European Union (“EU”) in 2009, but applicability to flights arriving or departing from airports outside the EU have been postponed several times. In December 2017, the European Parliament voted to extend exemptions for extra-EU flights until December 2023 in order to align the extension date with the completion of the pilot phase of the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (“ICAO”) Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (“CORSIA”). CORSIA, which was adopted in October 2016, is intended to create a single global market-based measure to achieve carbon-neutral growth for international aviation after 2020, which will be achieved through airline purchases of carbon offset credits. Certain CORSIA program details remain to be developed and could potentially be affected by political developments in participating countries or the results of the pilot phase of the program, and thus the impact of CORSIA cannot be fully predicted. However, CORSIA is expected to increase operating costs for airlines that operate internationally. In 2016, ICAO also adopted a carbon dioxide (“CO2”) emission standard for aircraft. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has commenced the procedural steps necessary to adopt its own standard, in consultation with the ICAO. While the precise timing and final form of these various programs and requirements continue to evolve, the Company is taking various actions that are expected to help to reduce its CO2 emissions over time such as fleet renewal, aircraft retrofits and the commercialization of aviation alternative fuels.

Other Regulations. Our operations are subject to a variety of other environmental laws and regulations both in the United States and internationally. These include noise-related restrictions on aircraft types and operating times and state and local air quality initiatives which have, or could in the future, result in curtailments in services, increased operating costs, limits on expansion, or further emission reduction requirements. Certain airports and/or governments, both domestically and internationally, either have or are seeking to establish environmental fees and other requirements applicable to carbon emissions, local air quality pollutants and/or noise. The implementation of state plans to achieve national standards for ozone is expected to result in restrictions on mobile sources such as cars, trucks and airport ground support equipment in some locations.

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Certain states may also elect to impose restrictions apart from the revised national standards. Finally, environmental cleanup laws could require the Company to undertake or subject the Company to liability for investigation and remediation costs at certain owned or leased locations or third party disposal locations.

Until applicability of new regulations to our specific operations is better defined and/or until pending regulations are finalized, future costs to comply with such regulations will remain uncertain but are likely to increase our operating costs over time. While we continue to monitor these developments, the precise nature of future requirements and their applicability to the Company are difficult to predict, but the financial impact to the Company and the aviation industry could be significant.

Employees

As of December 31, 2017, UAL, including its subsidiaries, had approximately 89,800 employees. Approximately 80% of the Company’s employees were represented by various U.S. labor organizations.

Collective bargaining agreements between the Company and its represented employee groups are negotiated under the RLA. Such agreements typically do not contain an expiration date and instead specify an amendable date, upon which the agreement is considered “open for amendment.”

The following table reflects the Company’s represented employee groups, the number of employees per represented group, union representation for each of United’s employee groups, and the amendable date for each employee group’s collective bargaining agreement as of December 31, 2017:

Employee Group					Number of Employees			Union		Agreement Open for Amendment
Flight Attendants					22,676			Association of Flight Attendants (the “AFA”)		August 2021
Passenger Service					13,299			International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (the “IAM”)		December 2021
Fleet Service					13,187			IAM		December 2021
Pilots					11,492			Air Line Pilots Association, International		January 2019
Technicians and Related & Flight Simulator Technicians					9,535			International Brotherhood of Teamsters (the “IBT”)		December 2022
Storekeeper Employees					1,000			IAM		December 2021
Dispatchers					402			Professional Airline Flight Control Association		December 2021
Fleet Tech Instructors					111			IAM		December 2021
Load Planners					71			IAM		December 2021
Security Officers					51			IAM		December 2021
Maintenance Instructors					40			IAM		December 2021

UNITE HERE is attempting to organize United’s Catering Operations employees, who are currently unrepresented, and filed an application to do so with the National Mediation Board on January 24, 2018.

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